Review: Sleeping Giant Mr Canoehead Red Ale


I swore I reviewed this beer last year, but it turns out that I didn't! Thanks Sue for the beer! I have a few others I still need to review as well!

Today's pick is Mr Canoehead by Thunder Bay's Sleeping Giant Brewing. The first time I ever tried Sleeping Giant was two years back when Sue brought a can of their Grass Roots Lager to my parents farm, it was a great lager!

When I think of Mr Canoehead, I think of the Canadian sitcom from the 80s that I've only heard about thanks to YouTube, way before my time!

Mr Canoehead is a Red Ale that they say deviates from the style with an added dry-hop to give it added aroma and flavour to it. It's brewed with Warrior, Citra, Cascade and Amarillo hops.. so it should be interesting.

Appearance: Pours a bright ruby red and a light amount of clarity to it yet has a good amount of floating sediment throughout the glass. Decent amount of carbonation in the glass, and a thick beige head to start things off that generally diminishes to leave behind still a nice amount of head and a lot of lacing on the side of the glass.

Aroma: Notes of caramel, floral hops, a bit of citrus with notes of lemon and a hint of tropical fruit (pineapple) thanks to the use of Citra for this beer. Light amount of toasted maltiness to it to give it an ever so slight hint of nuttiness to it.

Taste: The malt comes out on top in this beer, this tastes pretty much like your typical Red Ale as it has a hefty presence of caramel popping out in every sip, as well as a tad bit of nuttiness to it as well. The hops definitely pop out in this beer to give it a mild tropical presence to it - sweet fruitiness of pineapple and a hint of lemon. Not as bitter as I would expect from a Red Ale, so it's pretty easy to drink. Lastly, there's a bit of an herbal flavour at the end but I can't really put my finger on what it is.

Overall Thoughts: Easy to drink Red Ale with a good hop presence to it, it's not every day you see a Red Ale with Citra.. giving it a nice tropical oomph to it. Solid.


No comments: